Books welcome you to Perumbadavam Sreedharan’s workspace. Shelves, cupboards and almirahs overflow with books, some are kept under the cot in a well-kept, well-lit room at his house in Thamalam.
The time-worn writing table facing the window, has a pile of books kept on it along with all kinds of pens, letter pads, writing boards and sheaves of white paper waiting to be filled with words. Sitting on his good old wooden chair, Perumbadavam tells us, “I write whenever I feel like it. There is no fixed time, it is more about becoming the story, which is important for me. All that I need is a paper, a pen and a right frame of mind,” says one of the celebrated writers of Malayalam.
A close look at the books kept on the loft reveals that each bundle has labels stuck on them, categorising the tomes into biographies, literary study, classics, novels, plays, world literature, Basheer, Bible, Bible studies and the like. “I have put the labels so that it is easy to locate them. These are books that I read again and again,” he says.
A good amount of research and reference go into writing a book. That’s why there is a book on the Vedas on the table and a translation of Amish Tripathi’s Siva trilogy. “I had written Avanivazhvu Kinavu, a novel , a decade ago. It was published in a magazine. It is about Kumaran Asan’s poetic life. I have been thinking about rewriting it. So now I am working on that and that’s why I need to read up on the Vedas and about Siva. My late wife, Laila, wanted me to rewrite the work...,” he says. Photographs of his wife who passed away last year can be seen on the walls and on a shelf. “She was everything for me, my support and strength,” he adds.
The room has been his creative space ever since the house was built in 1980. But there was a phase in his life when he made the best out of the place he lived in.
Books as friends
“Growing up in penury at Perumbadavam with my widowed mother who strived hard to take care of me and my sister, I didn’t have a happy childhood. But somehow I found happiness in reading, that too poems. I would go into the fields and recite the poems loudly. Later, while writing, I started mimicking the style of those verses. Unfortunately there weren’t any bibliophiles in my village. Yet I used to write sitting on the floor, keeping the book on my lap...,” he remembers.
Although he couldn’t complete his school education, reading enriched his life, he says. “Once I got introduced to the writings of Thakazhi, Ponkunnam Varkey, Lalithambika Antharjanam, Kesavadev and many others, my focus shifted from poems to novels and stories. The world they opened before me gave me confidence to look ahead,” he says. A job with a magazine took him to Chennai along with his wife. But soon they came back and settled in Muvattupuzha, where he ran a magazine, Kalavedi, with her.
The decision to move to the capital city for a better life was the turning point. “We chose to live in Thamalam because we could afford the rent here. I have lived in many houses in the area. My first novel, Sarppakkavu , was widely appreciated and the second novel, Abhayam , literally gave me shelter in the city,” he says, remembering how Sobhana Parameswaran Nair, Ramu Kariyat and Sankaradi came to his rented house house seeking permission to adapt Abhayam into a feature film.
With his earnings, he bought the plot where the present house stands. “This was actually a thatched house. That was more than enough for my family. I was completely at home as a writer as well,” he says. And when the new house was constructed, he ensured that he had a space for himself.
It is here in this room that he wrote his eponymous work, Oru Sankeerthanam Pole that deals with the life of the Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevsky and his love, Anna. “When I first read the translation of Crime and Punishment as a 16-year-old, I was taken to a different world. I read it again and again like a holy text. I read more of his works in Chennai and here in Thiruvananthapuram especially at the Public Library. I realised that of all the characters he had created, he himself is the best. Call it my stupidity or my pride, I decided to write a novel on him,” he says.
But the process was a painful exercise. “I went into a state of madness, shut myself in this room and the novel became my world. And when I found it difficult to finish it on time, well-wishers took me to Thrissur and then to Kottayam to give me a better ambience, but to no avail. Finally, I finished it at my own home in Perumbadavam. A huge burden was off my shoulders!” The novel went on to make history, it has sold nearly 2.5 lakh copies now.
“What makes me really proud is the fact that the readers have always been with me. All my works have been best-sellers, sans any publicity. All that I do is just squeeze out what is there in my blood, flesh and soul into words...,” he says.
A series that explores the workspaces of creative people in the city and its suburbs
